Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, has been very critical of the recent decision by Wicklow County Council to approve the location of a water reservoir for Blessington on Roadstone’s land next to the illegal dumps that were discovered there. The Green Party councillor supported a proposal by Cllr Tommy Cullen (Ind) to locate the water reservoir at a greenfield site in Newtownpark, several miles from Blessington in County Kildare. The councillor argued that the Newtownpark site was the same distance from Blessington as the Glen Ding site, and that it was not mired in the kind of controversy that is linked to the Roadstone site. “Many people will be aware that Roadstone illegally quarried 67,000 tonnes of material from the site on its land and that the company was taken to the High Court by Wicklow County Council back in the late 1990’s” says de Burca. “The High Court ruled that the company would have to reinstate the site within 6 months of a Local Area Plan being adopted for Blessington. Interestingly enough no such Plan has been adopted over the past seven years and now we see Wicklow County Council proposing to take the site off Roadstone and to put a drinking water reservoir on it. The council will in effect remove the financial liability that attaches to the site for Roadstone. Now the taxpayer, rather than Roadstone, will end up paying the costs of remediating the site. Furthermore, the council cannot guarantee that the pipes crossing Roadstone’s land to the reservoir will not crack in the future and risk contamination of the drinking water supply. This is a major public health issue” she says. Cllr de Burca claims that this decision to locate a water reservoir on Roadstone’s land next to the illegal dumps is the latest in a series of “extraordinary decisions” made by Wicklow County Council in relation to the Roadstone company. “On each occasion it has taken external bodies such as the EPA and an Bord Pleanala to overturn these flawed decisions by Wicklow County Council” says de Burca. “The pattern of these decisions suggests that the Council is trying to satisfy the interests of this wealthy and politically influential company, often at the expense of the people of Blessington. This raises serious questions about why the council feels that it has to facilitate the company. I have heard allegations that Roadstone has evidence in its possession of the council illegally dumping on its land. I put this question to the Manager the other day but he refused to answer it directly”. Cllr de Burca says that it is now up to Minister Dick Roche to decide whether he will give the funding required to Wicklow County Council to develop the water reservoir at Glen Ding. “The Department of the Environment has already written to the council outlining concerns about the Glen Ding site” says de Burca. “I hope Minister Roche has the good sense to defend the interests of his own constituents in Blessington and to refuse to fund a drinking water reservoir next to an illegal dump”.

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Press Release by Deirdre